Alex King
Name: Alex King Gender: Female Age: 17 Grade: 12th School: Aurora High School Hobbies and Interests: Computer programming; video games; internet forums; trolling internet forums; politics; recreational substances Appearance: Alex stands at a shorter height of 5’5” and weighs in at 124 lbs, giving her a small frame. She is Caucasian. Alex keeps her dirty blonde hair cut short, reaching just down to the nape of her neck. Her forehead, already fairly large for her face, is riddled with pockmarks. She has grey eyes, average in size and rounded in shape, and a nose that is small for her face. Her thin lips are cracked and dry, whilst her teeth possess the obvious discolouration of a chain smoker. Her ears are also small for her head, whilst her jaw is thin and narrow and her chin is long, giving her face a diamond shape. She typically dresses in dark coloured clothing, often seen wearing plain t-shirts under an unzipped black zip-up hooded jacket, along with a pair of dark blue jeans and black combat boots. She is also rarely seen without her black ski cap. This is also what she was wearing on the day of the abduction, as she rarely makes changes to her wardrobe, even in the summer months. Biography: Alex King was born to Mike King, a financial consultant, and Leanne King née Price, a housewife. Both had lived in Seattle the majority of their lives, and after spending years as friends in high school the two reconnected several years after Mike graduated from college, Leanne having spent the time as a secretary. The two had a brief, but passionate, courtship, and Alex was born a year after they married. Shortly afterwards, the family settled into a modest flat within the city. From an early age Alex’s intelligence was apparent. Having left her job to spend more time with her daughter, Leanne exposed Alex to frequent mental stimuli in her daily activity at Mike’s pressing: he was intent on ensuring his daughter’s success in life. As a result, Alex was already learning to read and understood the very basics of mathematics before she began elementary school. When Alex finally did join school, her learning accelerated even more. Though Alex was remarkably smart for her age, her social skills had become stunted. As an only child Alex was already accustomed to getting what she wanted, but her father’s reluctance to leave Alex in the hands of day-care and out of his control meant that her interactions with other children had been limited at best. As a result of the mixture of her inability to get along with the other children and her boredom with the curriculum, Alex’s first year at school was fraught with misbehaviour. Whilst Alex’s social issues continued, so did her boredom with the syllabus. It was towards the end of her second year of schooling that Mike would start pushing for Alex to skip a grade. The school was hesitant however, given Alex’s social issues in her current grade, and refused the request at first. Leanne was quietly relieved about this, wanting Alex to adjust to a better social life rather than prioritising Mike’s desire for her to achieve academically. However, due to Mike’s somewhat overwhelming personality, Leanne kept her opinion to herself. Throughout elementary school, Alex would continue to perform excellently in her classes whilst her attitude towards her peers declined. She knew that she was smarter than most of them and wasn’t afraid to let it be known, harshly dismissing their ideas or suggestions for what to do, as she considered her own inherently superior. Eventually the other kids retaliated to her verbal putdowns, and Alex became increasingly isolated at school. At home, things weren’t much better. Though her relationship with her mother remained close, her father was being worked harder by his job, coming home more than one night too exhausted to spend much time with Alex or Leanne. What time they did spend together, however, was filled with praise for her academic achievements and reassurance for all matters social. Though Alex was upset with her inability to get along with most of her peers, her father reassured her that eventually she’d meet people she got along with. Without any close friends to spend time with, Alex took to video games as a way to pass the time. Her parents bought her a Nintendo 64 for her seventh birthday, and since then she has kept up with the latest consoles and game releases. For her early years, she maintained a preference for platformers and puzzle games, as they were the games her parents were usually willing to supply. As she grew older, she would shift more to competitive strategy games where she could pit herself against human opponents. Whilst the victories were to be savoured, every defeat was infuriating. Never the less, it proved enjoyable enough to become a regular hobby of hers. Approaching her final year of elementary school, Mike once again pushed for Alex to be skipped straight into middle school. Though the school was still reluctant, given Alex’s poor social skills and the significant age difference, Mike countered with the notion that she wasn’t going to get any better socially in her current environment, and that a new one would let her make new friends. Though the school still resisted, Mike became much more forceful in his push this time around, and eventually it was allowed for Alex to move ahead a grade. Alex herself was all for the idea, excited at the prospect of meeting a new group of people who might have lived up to her standards, whilst Leanne had quietly resigned herself to going along with Mike’s suggestions. As a reward for her early admission into middle school, Alex was given her first laptop. Though initially a means for playing computer games, her father eventually connected it to the internet, a feature she quickly embraced. She joined several forums, and though her young age kept her from truly integrating into many of them, the ability to reach more intelligent users and an access to novel attitudes served her well in her otherwise lonely social life. However, whilst her communication over the internet was much better than her interpersonal skills, Alex still possessed a condescending attitude and little patience for what she considered stupid. This resulted in more than a few arguments on various forums she had joined, leading to some bans of both the temporary and permanent variety. As a result, she often took to making fake accounts for the forums and trolling them in revenge, at least until the IPs were recognised and banned too. In middle school, despite Mike only using the idea as an excuse to get her early admission, Alex’s social life did make an actual improvement. Whilst there were still plenty of students she couldn’t stand, and being younger and smaller than the other students proved problematic from time to time, Alex had her first encounter with someone she found tolerable: her first friend, Richard “Richy” Denham. Richy was a small kid too, though he was of the same age as the rest of the class, and was of comparable intelligence to Alex. The two shared most of their interests, and became best friends fast. The two also bonded over putting down the stupid kids in their class, an attitude that did little to endear them to the other students. Both were seen as antisocial freaks, but they supported each other throughout it all. As middle school progressed, Alex began to spend less time at home and more time hanging out with Richy around the city. This often left Leanne home alone, and whilst she was happy that her daughter had finally found a friend, she began to grow bored with her own life. To make matters worse, the passion in her relationship with Mike had long since vanished, and the two were growing more distant from each other by the day. This resulted in a lot of tension in the household when all three members were present, and Alex had little difficulty picking up on this fact. It all came to a climax in light of the 2007 financial crisis. As work became unbearable in the face of most of his clients’ companies collapsing, Mike took the tension of his job’s precarious position out at home. Minor grievances turned into full on arguments quickly and swiftly. Leanne tried to avoid the issue, apologising for things that were hardly her fault, whilst Alex watched her father tirade at her mother. The stress of it all began to impact her performance at school. For the first time in her life, she cut classes so that she could pour herself into the internet, taking out her own frustrations on unsuspecting websites with more of her trolling. The teacher’s took swift notice of this, and as a result of their actions, Mike’s anger moved from Leanne to Alex as well. With his own career hanging in the balance, he was outraged at the idea that his daughter would throw her future away too. Whilst Alex’s attitude in school had never been particularly endearing, it became obvious to the staff that Alex was suffering, especially when Richy confessed to the problems that Alex had shared with him. Alex would never learn of Richy’s involvement in the matter, however, as she had sworn him to secrecy rather than risk her household’s state getting out to the rest of her class. Eventually, social services were called in. Rather than suffer what he considered to be the humiliation of rehabilitation for his family’s sake, Mike chose to leave the family after one last argument, citing that if they were so ungrateful for all his work then they could get by without it. It would prove to be the last time Alex would see her father, by her own choice. Whilst Mike paid his child support, it wasn’t enough to pay the lease on the flat. As Leanne was unable to find work, given the financial climate, the two were limited on options. As Leanne had endured a similarly painful separation from her own family, going to them for help was not an option. As a result, the two had to move into whatever accommodation they could find, which would end up being located in Rainier Valley. Though it was a longer distance to school every day, Alex refused to change schools and lose touch with Richy. Though the adjustment was painful, Alex also refused any counselling offered by the school, for fear that anyone else would find out. Whilst she still considered herself superior to most of her classmates, she was still very proud at heart, and so she endured the difficult period of her life by herself, not even letting Richy discuss the topic with her. Whilst she still tried to remain close friends with him, she kept her personal life as her own. Leanne, however, did not fare as well. Suffering a bout of depression after all the events, her relationship with her daughter strained. Alex, already having suffered the loss of one parent, didn’t attempt to push her mother to reconnect; rather she chose to cut herself off from her mother almost completely, only interacting with her at face value. Despite this, her performance in school slowly returned to its original excellent standing, and apart from Mike’s departure, life in the King household returned to a shell of normality. High school proved to be another opportunity for Alex to step up. In spite of being a year younger than her class mates, she was blessed with an early development and was able to blend in with the crowd without much difficulty. Unlike her entrance to middle school, where she revealed the news without much hesitation, Alex chose not to mention her younger age to the freshmen of Aurora High, even when it became known through other graduates of her middle school. Though there were still plenty of people she thought herself better than, Alex once again met new people who satisfied her high standards, and her social circle expanded yet again. At the same time, so did Richy’s. Whilst the two had remained friends, Alex’s refusal to confide in Richy had subtly, but noticeably, distanced the two. Eventually his social circle grew separate from Alex’s, and the friendship of the two weakened. This would culminate in Richy’s family moving away from Seattle towards the end of their sophomore year, to Alex’s horror. Though she had made new friends, Alex felt awful once again. She once again dived into tormenting strangers on the internet as a way to express her pain, but she was, for once, more upset than angry. She began to suspect that she had made him feel emotionally shut out after reviewing their old chat logs, and blamed herself for the entire friendship decaying. Through her grief she began to distance herself from her new friends, too. Over the summer preceding her junior year, Alex reconnected with her mother. Having finally found secretary work again, Leanne could afford to take the two on outings within the city. Since both were without many close friends at that time, they began to support each other’s loneliness, and repaired their bond over that summer. Despite still feeling the pain of losing Richy, Alex often regards that summer fondly. Her father, however, would continue to remain out of her life. Though there was a brief period a few months after his departure where he attempted to regain contact with Alex, she refused to acknowledge him after he had hurt both her and her mother, and eventually the attempts to contact her vanished entirely. The only proof that he still acknowledges her is the regular child support cheque, a fact that Alex happily dismisses as a legal requirement and nothing more. It was during the summer with her mother that Alex would discover her favourite intellectual pursuit: computer science. I.T. classes at school had done little to grab her attention, but a visit to the Pacific Science Centre started off her interest. After exploring a computer technology exhibit, the interest in the inner workings of her laptop began to expand and researching the topic became a regular hobby of hers. She developed a particular affiliation for programming, due to its role in her video games as well as appreciating its influence as the back door to computers. During junior year, her younger age finally caught up with her. As her classmates began driving and getting part time jobs, Alex found herself feeling her age and left behind for the first time. To fit in with the friends she did have, she would begin exposing herself to illicit substances, notably marijuana. Although she felt stupid for taking it, the realisation that she had begun to fear being a social outcast again convinced her to maintain the habit. Having lost her closest friend in Richy and only having an amicable friendship with her current friends, she did what she could to hang on to those relationships. Though her mother picked up on the signs of her daughter’s new narcotic problem, she was hesitant to bring herself into conflict with her daughter, lest she disconnect from her again, and so said nothing. It was early on in her marijuana use that the topic of politics came up. In spite of faking her high at the time, the points that one of her compatriots made about the benefits of anarchism in jest stuck with her. The idea of a society without government lingered in her head, and Alex began to pursue online articles about the topic. Eventually she decided that she disagreed with the idea, refusing the believe that the general population were remotely capable of managing their own lives, but the interest in political agendas was born, and Alex began to study different points of view on how society could be run. However, appreciating the benefits and conflicts of most sides, Alex never managed to settle on any single political perspective. Rather, she chose instead to discuss the topic in online settings, arguing with those who point out their own political agendas. Though she can come off as unnecessarily argumentative in such posts, in truth Alex is merely trying to engage in a discussion in most situations. Unfortunately, her posts more often than not contain a sarcastic tone that discourage further rebuttal, and her propensity to lose her temper when people fail to understand her points more often than not leads to her being mistaken for a troll when she isn’t trying to be one. As usual, she retaliates against these sites with actual trolling. In her senior year, Alex would gain her first part time job as a Burger King employee. Whilst Alex loathes the job to this day, she also embraces the need for income: whilst her and her mother moved to a larger apartment in the Valley following her mother gaining a job, Alex still had little cash for herself. Due to the stress of the job and the great strains enduring the perceived humiliation caused her, Alex adopted another bad habit and began chain smoking. Too young to buy cigarettes herself, Alex convinced her older friends to pick them up for her, and when they weren’t around she convinced the shop keeper to look the other way with a larger payment when IDs were requested. Though her success rate was imperfect, she managed to get her hands on enough cigarettes to keep up with smoking. Her mother, once again, chose not to make waves by calling attention to her daughter’s behaviour. At school, Alex continues to display her academic brilliance with her solid grade point average. Though her skill in technical subjects such as mathematics and science far outweighs her knowledge of subjects like history and literature, she retains a sharp enough memory to achieve well all around. Creative subjects tend to be her folly, if for a lack of interest more than anything, but she gives them little weight in her school performance. She has decided to study computer science at college to further indulge her interest and to have access to what she considers a prosperous career. However, she has yet to decide what she would do with her degree, and believes she will find out in college. Physically, Alex is as bad as she has always been. Having never had much interest in physical education, nor was she invited to many playground games in school, Alex never experienced much exercise beyond walking. With her current smoking problem, her endurance has taken yet another sharp hit, and so her physical state in general is quite poor. Now almost at the end of high school, Alex’s social situation has settled into an imperfect but stable situation. Though she is still quick to lash out at harshly anyone she disagrees with and maintains her superior status to anyone who doesn’t live up to her intellectual standards, she has settled into a social circle of sorts with other stoners. Though she does consider herself above most of them, she is afraid to distance herself from them, lest she find herself losing friends again. The fact that she will have to enter an entirely new social circle at college terrifies Alex, exacerbating her smoking and internet trolling habits. As a result, she has finally relented and begun seeing a school counsellor, a secret she guards with her life. She has acknowledged the fact that she has had to lower her standards to fit in with the rest of the school, a fact that bothers her endlessly, but so far has yet to relent to the idea that lowering her standards isn’t a bad thing. From her point of view, she considers it a betrayal of her own ideals just to fit in with people she considers beneath her, even if those people are her closest friends. Advantages: Alex is incredibly intelligent, possessing sharp reasoning, pervasive logic and an enduring memory. Despite her hostile attitude, Alex is also surprisingly empathic, an attitude that may allow her to pick up on hostile vibes. In addition, she has a lot of experience with enduring mental and emotional turmoil, which will benefit her endurance on the island. Disadvantages: Alex is bitter, harsh, cynical, and generally unpleasant to deal with if you can’t live up to her expectations. Even then, she has little in the way of diplomacy and cares even less for compromise. She is also dependent on her tobacco intake, a fact which will no doubt cause her attitude to decay even further if she can’t maintain her smoking habit. Physically, she has little to no capability. Designated Number: Female student No. 066 --- Designated Weapon: Kitchen Knife Conclusion: You can ride the right attitude a long way. G066 is a pretty thorough bitch. I like her. - Matt Richards - You would The above biography is as written by Slamexo. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made. Evaluations Handled by: Slamexo Kills: None Killed By: Collar Detonation Collected Weapons: Kitchen Knife (designated weapon) Allies: 'Cassandra Black '''Enemies: 'Cassandra Black '''Mid-game Evaluation: Post-Game Evaluation: Memorable Quotes: Other/Trivia Threads Below is a list of threads that contain Alex, in chronological order. Pre-Game: *Kick Balls *Heart to Heart V5: *Shit Happens *Scavengers *Now I'm radioactive! That can't be good! *Geiger Counter *Everything Here is a Small Cap Investment *Blowing Smoke Your Thoughts Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Alex King. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here! * When I created Alex fairly last minute in V5, I fell in love with her quite quickly, so much in fact that I became less interested in my other two kids. This was a mistake, as whilst Alex was fine as far as characters go as far as I'm concerned, my other two were just as worthy of attention from myself, if not more. Gabriella in particular got the short end of the stick because of Alex, and by the time Alex had to go I had already lost interest in her sticking around anyway (most likely exacerbated by the site crash). Let this be a lesson about not getting too absorbed in one of your characters to the point of exclusion of the rest. - Slamexo ** Coming back to reread Alex later on, there are things about her I love and things that make me shake my head at myself. I think that her earliest posts are some of my favorite as far as my own writing goes, as I love how I portrayed her character and attitude. However, I can also pinpoint the exact post where everything starts to go wrong: her second post on day two. At this point, Alex's cynical, harsh nature has become worn out, and as a reader I want to see her start developing. Even given multiple opportunities to do so over the next two threads, I chose to ignore them in favor of Alex's continued bitching, and it just gets tired. To that extent, whilst I'm happy with how I captured her voice on a personal level, I'd like to hope that next time I'm able to better spot the times to move on from the initial personality and develop my characters beyond it. - Slamexo * Alex is a super tough character to chew on for me. On one hand, Slam really did get down her bitterness and intelligence to a point. On the other hand, I never felt she understood empathy, nor could I empathize with her because of that, and I think I was suppose to. It became hard to take her seriously when her logic and her cynicism became one in the same, moving it past any bearable reason, and that's her main problem. - Un-Persona Category:V5 Students